Resources and exercises

Spanish Phrases - Feeling Unwell

Health-related Words & Phrases

Whether talking to friends, business colleagues or doctors, if you feel unwell, it's important to be able to express clearly what the problem is. Learn essential vocabulary on our page about parts of the body. Below are some brief notes on grammar, especially the use of DOLER & TENER, and key phrases to express ideas about minor illnesses, aches and pains.

DOLER (to hurt, to ache)

In Spanish, it is common to express the feeling of pain with an indirect-object pronoun. The pronoun refers to the person who has the pain, not the source of the pain. So in English we might say 'I have a headache', but in Spanish it would be 'Me duele la cabeza' ( ~ the head hurts me).

Look at the forms of these verbs, according to the corresponding pronoun.

Note that the verb DOLER is similar to the verb GUSTAR in that it has only two forms: 'duele' or 'duelen' depending on whether the object (what hurts) is singular or plural.

Yo - Me duele/n

Tú - Te duele/n

Él / Ella / Usted - Le duele/n

Nosotros / Nosotras - Nos duele/n

Vosotros / Vosotras - Os duele/n

Ellos / Ellas - Les duele/n

Use DUELE with singular things that give you pain/discomfort

When the thing that hurts you is singular (e.g. my head), we use Me duele + singular object.